Disney and Netflix announced a deal Thursday for four 13-episode series featuring Marvel Comics heroes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage that will air on the video-streaming service over multiple years and will lead to a mini-event called The Defenders.

The film division heads off to Asgard and fantasy realms on Friday with the release of Thor: The Dark World and launches into the cosmos with Guardians of the Galaxy on Aug. 1.

That leaves a lot of storytelling options on the ground, however, and the Netflix shows star heroes who, in the comics, have teamed up with each other several times in and around New York City. (Jessica Jones and Luke Cage even have a kid together.)
It's a win for all involved.

Disney, which already dipped its toe into series television with ABC's freshman show Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., continues its march toward entertainment domination.

Netflix will probably see a big bump in subscription numbers and its stock price â€” with the Marvel movies doing boffo box office, that's a lot of audience interested in the product.

And for the fans, especially those who read Jessica Jones in the early 2000s series Alias (different from the J.J. Abrams/Jennifer Garner spy show, by the way) or 1970s-era Power Man and Iron Fist comics, they get to see their favorite street-level characters where they belong: on the street and fighting crime.

Marvel recently received the rights to make Daredevil a screen-ready hero from 20th Century Fox â€” Fox released one Daredevil movie in 2003 with Ben Affleck, and it was not met with enthusiasm from many fanboys. Having a Netflix outlet, though, allows a second chance for the blind hero from Hell's Kitchen to have maybe a law-leaning show, where attorney Matt Murdock spends his days in the courtroom and then puts on the red outfit to patrol the mean streets at night.

Plus, Marvel has plenty of classic comic stories to choose from for the character, with luminaries such as Frank Miller, Ed Brubaker, Kevin Smith, Brian Michael Bendis and most recently Mark Waid penning memorable runs.

A Jessica Jones series lets Marvel finally put the spotlight on a headlining female do-gooder, which they have publicly hinted at a few times this year. The series could be in the mystery mold, since Jessica retired her superhero life for one as a private eye.
Luke Cage and Iron Fist have been close pals since they were teamed in 1978 due to neither of their respective comics â€” Power Man and Iron Fist â€” selling all that well. Interesting that Marvel is breaking up the pair, though giving them each a Netflix series allows non-comic fans to get to know them well before the inevitable team-up. Plus those are two potentially different shows â€” martial-arts master Iron Fist could be a spiritual/mythological kung-fu project, while the nearly indestructible African-American hero Luke Cage begs for an all-out action series.

"Sweet Christmas!" indeed.

Thus far, Marvel's early journey into small-screen waters has been a little bumpy. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. debuted with strong Nielsen ratings in late September but has been on a slow and steady decline since, in addition to geek nation being mixed on the show itself.
With this crew of characters especially, Marvel/Netflix could stand to look more at what DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. TV are doing with their own street-level hero in Arrow, from the comic-book references, supporting players and easter eggs to creating a world where the superhero doesn't have to be "super." That could be ideal in terms of budget for the Netflix model â€” while Thor and Guardians need to use green screens and expensive special effects for their out-of-this-world visuals, Daredevil, for example, could be filmed and created more practically.
He might be remembered from the Affleck movie by more casual fans, but Marvel is faced with a mainstream culture unfamiliar with the other three leads for series. No need to panic, though â€” Marvel as a brand is enough to get quite a few people psyched for a Netflix binge-watching session, but short of that, they could use either a cameo on S.H.I.E.L.D., a drop-in or mid-credits scene in a movie, or one of the "Marvel One Shots" short films on Blu-ray/DVD releases to seed characters into the public consciousness.

And by the time they get around to the Defenders event, Marvel will make sure you know who Luke Cage and Jessica Jones are, if they're not already starring in a Disney World attraction by then. The company loves its super team-ups (see: The Avengers) and parts leading up to a greater whole (see: the "Phases" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe), so it will make a big deal about Defenders, guaranteed. And it's hard to imagine Doctor Strange not being part of that party â€” by then a rumored solo movie starring him could be a reality, too, and likely more film/TV synergy.

One surprising aspect is that Marvel went with The Defenders, which has in comics history been a quirky grouping of oddball types, instead of Heroes for Hire, a concept that was born in the '70s with Luke Cage. (That also would have given them a chance to introduce karate-kicking Misty Knight and Colleen Wing from the comics.)

I feel like there is going to be a saturation point with all of this comic book b.s.

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Maybe in in the U.S but the comic book movies are huge in the international market. So its unlikely they will stop making them any time soon. Im a comic book fan and even I think its a bit much lately.

Maybe in in the U.S but the comic book movies are huge in the international market. So its unlikely they will stop making them any time soon. Im a comic book fan and even I think its a bit much lately.

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I don't want to have to watch each movie to keep up with the rest of the storyline.

All of the original programming Netflix is doing is ambitious and it looks like they're not afraid to spend money to put out quality, I just hope that when the inevitable monthly subscription rate jump happens that it isn't a big one.